Based on what he had seen and the recent clash, her weight was around 52kg, and her height was approximately 152cm. He thought he could push her back sufficiently, but Im Yoo-Bin barely moved half as much as he expected. She was quite skilled at deflecting force with her shield.
"Huu...!"
Exhaling a ragged breath as she was pushed back, Im Yoo-Bin firmly planted her feet on the arena floor again. A prelude to a charge.
Yeon-Woo, seizing the opportunity, scattered nearly half of his magic power into the air. Yoo Ha-Yeon, sensing the magic power from the sudden action, glared at Yeon-Woo, but he paid no attention.
In an instant, all the information within his Domain flooded into his brain like a jolt.
Yeon-Woo grimaced at the unexpected pain. It seemed Shar had filtered the information once before. Still, he needed to get used to it...!
The Domain magic, by its nature, rapidly increased magic power consumption if set to track a target. It meant that Yeon-Woo's current magic power capacity couldn't handle it.
Therefore, he chose to fix it to the ground surface. In other words, from now on, to familiarize himself with the gap, Yeon-Woo had to remain stationary and withstand Im Yoo-Bin's attacks.
It was disadvantageous, but he considered it a suitable handicap to offset the advantage of his overwhelming decade-long practical experience. Yeon-Woo took a deep breath.
Im Yoo-Bin sensed something was off but shook her head to dispel her hesitation.
Yeon-Woo clicked his tongue at the sight.
Her mentality was more resilient than he had anticipated. Her timid nature wasn't a penalty at all, was it?
──Whoosh!!
With the sound of breaking the air barrier, Im Yoo-Bin charged once more like a bolt of lightning.
If her first charge didn't contain magic power, this time it clearly did. Reaching maximum speed in just over a second. It was exceptionally fast, almost appearing as if she had vanished for a moment.
"This might sound strange, but your style is like a wild boar."
"Thanks for the compliment...!!"
She had a good personality too. He had intended to provoke her a little, considering how sensitive people her age were. She was quite remarkable. Why didn't she make a name for herself ten years later? It wasn't the right time to ponder, so he pulled his gaze back to observe the trajectory of her charge.
Taking a breath, Yeon-Woo swung his sword downward with about half the usual force.
He didn't put his full strength into it. Unlike when he swung at Namgung Seong with the thought that he wouldn't die even if he got hit, Im Yoo-Bin wouldn't be the same.
'Swinging down to block a charge, what a clumsy decision... Huh?'
Im Yoo-Bin raised her shield to deflect it. However, a chilling sensation continued to run down her spine, setting off alarm bells.
Unable to ignore her intuition, Im Yoo-Bin, at the very last moment, slammed her shield into the ground, using it as a pivot to forcefully twist her body sideways.
The wooden sword grazed past her face.
Swoosh!!
The sound of air being cut, which came later than the sword passing by, felt distant.
Without time to be shocked, Im Yoo-Bin instinctively used the momentum and centrifugal force of her spin to deliver a kick to Choi Yeon-Woo's exposed side.
The Domain reacted instinctively, moving Yeon-Woo's body. The recoil from the downward swing was too great to block. He threw his body first in the direction of the kick.
'Wh, what is that!!'
Choi Yeon-Woo, who had just gotten up, clenched and unclenched his hand, frowning at the now-shocked Im Yoo-Bin.
'I almost killed her. I almost ruined her life.'
He realized that the Domain wasn't a suitable magic to practice in sparring. The moment the opponent's body entered his Domain, his body reacted automatically.
A downward swing with his concentration at its peak. His body, focused to the limit, naturally produced the most optimal downward swing.
If he hadn't forcefully changed its course at the last second, things would have gone terribly wrong.
[It's fortunate that monsters don't use it with such precision.]
'If they did, the world would have ended.'
He genuinely believed so.
In gaming terms, it was a buff that affected accuracy, critical hits, and counterattacks. Was that even possible?
If monsters, who already had superior physical abilities, started using something like this, he wouldn't be able to be a Hunter!! No, he wouldn't do it!!
"That's enough. Im Yoo-Bin, well done. Your good judgment in each moment was impressive. Choi Yeon-Woo, you... No, never mind. We'll talk later. Next two, come forward."
Thus, the sparring between Im Yoo-Bin and Yeon-Woo ended. Yeon-Woo, out of breath from the recoil of the downward swing, and Im Yoo-Bin, unharmed except for some dust, presented a stark contrast. It seemed the forced change in trajectory at the end had taken a toll on his body.
"Ar, are you okay...?"
"Yeah... Just, out of, breath, huff, yeah."
"Ah..."
As Yeon-Woo lay sprawled on the seat closest to the arena, catching his breath, Im Yoo-Bin, who had been fidgeting, crouched beside him and whispered. Thankfully, the headache was subsiding, but his body felt like it was falling apart.
"Could you maybe spar with me again sometime...?"
"Sure, sure..."
For now, he just needed to rest.
* * *
The academy's incoming students were broadly divided into three categories:
Hunter Department, Magic Department, and Support Department.
Starting with the Hunter Department, the enrollment quotas were 200, 300, and 500, respectively. Thus, a total of 1,000 students entered the academy each year.
Just hearing about it might give the impression of strict barriers between departments, but that wasn't the case when it came to course registration.
As long as they registered through the academy app, anyone could take courses from any department, regardless of their own. Of course, that was only if they could maintain sufficient grades in their own department's courses.
The final grades were determined by a combination of mandatory major courses and elective courses.
It was a test of how well Hunters understood their own capabilities and how much they could develop them, while also exploring what they excelled at and their limits.
'Damn it, Shar!! The Magic Department courses are so tempting!'
[You can take them if you want...? But with me around, is it really necessary?]
'The Support Department's "Understanding Magic Engineering" and the Magic Department's "Magic Stone Processing and Handling"... Wouldn't I be invincible if I mastered both?'
[Dad, you're being too greedy!!]
However, for Yeon-Woo, who had to learn everything through trial and error, course registration was like a treasure trove.
While taking his time to consider was an option, there were naturally limits on class sizes, and there were up to 999 rivals vying for the courses he was interested in.
The thought of it gave him decision paralysis, so he was brainstorming with Shar.
They finally made some progress after deciding that Yeon-Woo would choose courses from the Hunter and Support Departments, while Shar would select the Magic Department courses.
As a result, he registered for a total of four courses: "Anti-Monster Combat Practice" from the Hunter Department, "Mana Heart Composition and Control" and "Countermeasures against Magic, Part 1" from the Magic Department, and "Basic Magic Tool Crafting" from the Support Department.
Even with the mandatory Hunter Department courses, it seemed like there would be room for one more, but he decided to leave that slot open.
Yeon-Woo raised his head. A door adorned with ornate patterns stood before him. A plaque with elegant engraving read "Department Head's Office."
He had left the extra slot open because of "Myriad Sword" Yuri. No matter how much he thought about it, there was no reason to refuse his offer.
Even if he knew that place was hell, there was no way he could refuse the offer of a man called Myriad Sword while claiming to use a sword.
From this point in time until Baek In-hwa's death in his past life, there were only about two months left.
If he couldn't reach a level where he could clear a C-rank Gate alone, or with Baek In-hwa, including Shar's support, by then, it wouldn't even be a discussion.
Don't hesitate to save those you can save.
That was one of the paramount principles of Hunters set forth by the Hunter Guild.
